At a garden overflowing with fresh blossoms, a man wearing a white mask hummed a tune and gently watered the flowers blooming in the beds. A butterfly landed on a petal dotted with clear droplets of water. Birdsong, the croaking of frogs, flowers in full bloom, and tall, dignified trees could be heard and seen. The scene was beautiful enough to make one think that if paradise existed, it would look like this.

The masked man smiled with deep satisfaction as he looked over the garden he had cultivated with his own hands. “Phew! There really is no better healing than this.”

He walked toward an old rocking chair placed at the center. “Let’s see... I’ve finished watering, so now I can sit back and enjoy a good book.”

Just then, a hard knock, completely out of place in such a peaceful scene, echoed through the garden.

“Come in,” said the white-masked man.

The garden door opened, and a lean man wearing a bear mask stepped inside.

The white-masked man turned to him. “What is it?”

“The Wolf has died.”

A heavy silence fell.

The white-masked man calmly lowered himself into the rocking chair, then asked, “Who killed him?”

“Well....” The bear-masked man hesitated, voice trailing off.

“You didn’t even confirm who did it?”

“My apologies. The only thing we know for certain is that the person responsible is connected to the Hero Academy.”

“The Hero Academy, huh. Tsk.”

Reaching to the table beside his chair, the white-masked man picked up a book and flipped it open.

The bear-masked man asked, “What will you do? The Academy’s Seven-Star Cultural Festival is coming up, so we could infiltrate during—”

The white-masked man interrupted him and shook his head. “No. Leave it.”

The black eyes visible through his mask gleamed sharply. “What matters right now is the Empress.”

“Yes.”

Still flipping through the pages of the old book, the white-masked man continued leisurely, “Contact Mephisto. Tell him the ember beneath the imperial palace has begun to flare.”

***

While I had obtained a three-story party training hall from Headmaster Ryu, calling it a training hall didn’t quite do it justice. It was large enough that “guild house” or “party house” would be a more fitting name.

Inside that vast space, exclamations of awe echoed.

Iris blinked wide-eyed, glancing around in disbelief. “Wow! We’re really using this entire building just for our party?”

“That’s right,” I replied.

Even as the Saintess of the Holy Empire, treated with top-class respect within the academy, Iris was unable to close her mouth at the sight of the training hall.

She wasn’t the only one. Berald and Senior Sophia also wandered around like villagers who had just stepped into a massive city for the first time.

“T-to think we received this as payment. Brother, what in the world have you been doing outside?”

“You didn’t... hypnotize the headmaster or something, right?”

“Hypnotize? Come on,” I replied.

Even if I could, I wouldn’t use that kind of ability on a 150-year-old geezer.

“Hypnosis?” Laneige muttered.

My ears perked up. “Hm?”

She continued, “Hypnosis... Hypnosis, huh. I didn’t think of that. Maybe that is an option.”

Worrying about what I just heard, I said, “L-Laneige?”

“Huh? Ah! It’s nothing! Totally nothing!”

No, it’s absolutely not nothing.

“Hehehe. T-this place is great, Dale!” she added.

No. You weren’t interested at all five minutes ago, I said inside.

Turning to the rest of them, I continued with the building tour. “Alright, if you come this way, here’s the entrance to the training arena.”

Iris interrupted me. “Dale, you said the second floor is a lounge, right? Can we check that first?”

Senior Sophia asked, “Is the third floor really empty? Perfect. I can turn it into a magic research lab.”

Berald exclaimed, “Brother! Since we finally have our own hideout, how about we throw a celebration party tonight?”

They were so excited about finally getting a private base that they could not even pretend to focus on the training arena part. Honestly, I couldn’t blame them.

Laneige asked, “D-Dale? W-where’s the changing room?”

What exactly did she plan to do that required finding the changing room first? I didn’t know what to say to her.

I let out a sigh. Sure, they were all diligent at heart. But of course, they would be more excited about our party’s first base than about a facility meant for training.

“Hmm.”

What was the point of going through the trouble of selling my body, I mean, putting in the effort to secure this cutting-edge training hall if no one even cared?

Just as I was feeling a little sulky, an excited voice rang beside my ear. “Dale! The training arena! Where is it?”

Surprised to hear that someone was actually interested, I asked, “You want to see the training arena first?”

Yurina’s star-bright eyes sparkled as she fired questions like an excited puppy. “Of course! It’s amazing! You said it was built using the Republic’s newest technology, right? How do the training modes work? Have you tried them yourself? Professor Baldwin told me there’s an insane Challenge Mode too!”

It was exactly what I expected from someone who genuinely loved training.

“Haaa! This is great! Dale, can I try it right now?” Yurina asked.

“Yurina,” I said.

“Mm?”

“You’re the only one I have.”

“W-what? Why?”

I pulled Yurina, who was disguised as Yuren, into a hug. She was surprised and stared at me wide-eyed.

You’re the only one who appreciates the fruits of my labor, I said inside.

At that moment, another voice rang out. “Well, Yurina is right. Everyone, get changed into training gear. We will begin party training immediately.”

It was Camilla.

Oh, guess there’s one more person, I thought.

I stopped her. “Training starts tomorrow.”

Camilla frowned sharply. “What?”

She planted her hands firmly on her waist. “Tomorrow? We were supposed to start today!”

“We haven’t even finished moving our things in yet, and it’s our first day. Let’s just look around, do as Berald said, and celebrate in the lounge on the second floor tonight.”

Although I did feel a little hurt that my party members showed absolutely no interest in the training arena, that didn’t mean I was planning to start party training today. Lectures at the academy were the same. On the first day, professors usually just talked about the semester plan and let everyone relax. Though, one time I had skipped the entire first week, thinking it’d all be easy, only for the professor to start real classes and blindside me.

Anyway, since this was our first day with our own party training hall, it felt right to spend today celebrating with everyone and discussing our plans.

Camilla snorted sharply and shook her head, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. “Hmph! Pathetic! How do you expect to become a party strong enough to surpass the Great Five Heroes with that rotten level of discipline?”

When did our party goal become something that grand? Technically, our objective was to defeat the Demon God’s forces, so she wasn’t exactly wrong.

She continued, “If you skip one day of training, you suffer for three! We have no time to waste on leisurely celebration banquets!”

Looking around, I said, “Oh, right. Speaking of that, Headmaster Ryu sent us a special bottle of alcohol to commemorate our new party house.”

“What the...” She paused.

I continued, “It’s a top-grade whiskey from the Holy Empire. Apparently, he received it personally from Pope Marianne.”

I had learned one thing after spending over half a year at a party with Camilla. This woman secretly loved alcohol. That was especially so for whiskey from the Holy Empire, famous for being unbelievably strong.

Camilla immediately shut up. She gulped as her eyes darted longingly toward the bottle.

Then, she said, “A-as a devout follower of the Seven Star Church, I can’t possibly refuse a gift from the Pope.”

Look at her practically drooling.

Personally, I preferred milder drinks like wine or beer over brutally strong Holy Empire whiskey. But it didn’t matter. Since Camilla had taken the bait, only one thing was left to do.

“Alright. Berald and I will go and buy more drinks and snacks. Everyone else, keep looking around,” I said.

“Heh heh! We’ll be right back!”

***

Thus began the commemorative party on the second-floor lounge. Since Berald insisted that if we were going to party, we should do it properly, we ended up hauling crates of beer and wine from the campus store until they formed a literal mountain in the corner.

“Alright then! A toast to Brother Dale and Headmaster Ryu for securing this amazing party house!”

“Cheers!”

Glasses clinked, and the real drinking began.

“It’s really nice having a place just for us.”

“You like it?”

Iris smiled brightly and nodded. “Yes!”

“But why isn’t Professor Baldwin here? It would’ve been nice if she joined us.”

I replied, “Oh, uh, that’s...”

We had a bit of an incident recently, was what I wanted to say, but I stopped myself.

“Did you... get into a fight with her?” Iris asked.

“No, nothing like that.”

There was no way I could tell Iris what actually happened. It was partially so because I wanted that memory to be mine alone. Just thinking of Professor Baldwin blushing with teary eyes made the corners of my mouth twitch upward.

Iris stared at me with doubtful eyes. “Something’s fishy.”

I quickly turned away from Iris’s suspicious squinting gaze and noticed Yurina taking a drink from Berald.

“Yurina. Don’t drink too much today,” I said.

“Huh? Why?”

“Why, you ask?”

Had she already forgotten the disaster that happened on the field trip?

She replied, “Haha, don’t worry, Dale! I just sliiightly miscalculated my pace at that time. I can handle my liquor!”

I was speechless at her brazen response.

“And you didn’t forget whose descendant I am, right?” she added.

She had said the same thing last time, then passed out an hour later.

I looked at Berald. “Make sure you don’t give her too much.”

Berald grinned. “Heh heh. Don’t worry, Brother. I’ll pace her properly.”

He then shrugged and asked, “Anyway, Brother, next week is the Seven Stars Cultural Festival. What are you planning to do then?”

“Oh wow, is it already that close?”

Since I hadn’t been attending classes due to my suspension, I completely forgot the festival was approaching.

“Well, honestly, it’s not like we do anything special, right?” I said.

Since this wasn’t a normal school but an academy training future heroes, the festival was extremely modest. The whole thing lasted only a single day—no flashy guest performers or big events. At most, like during the Sealing Festival, a few outside merchants set up small stalls.

It was less a festival and more just a day off to drink and mess around. The academy did sometimes hold things like poetry contests, which Professor Kane won last year, but participation in those events was ridiculously low.

“Well, they at least shoot fireworks in the evening.”

“I mean... Yeah, they do.”

Whether they shot fireworks or artillery shells, I didn’t really care.

“Speaking of which, have you heard this story?” Berald asked.

“What story?”

“You know the fireworks show at night? Among the hundreds of fireworks they launch, there’s one, just one, that’s shaped like a heart. If a couple kisses right as that heart-shaped firework bursts, they’ll stay together for life. Supposedly.”

“There’s a rumor like that?”

In both this life and my past one, I had never heard such a thing.

“It’s spreading quickly among the students lately.”

“Wow, that’s exactly the kind of rumor that would circulate at a school,” I said while scoffing.

What else would one expect from a place full of young men and women? Heroes-in-training or not, they were still teenagers.

I was about to laugh it off when the others began speaking one after another.

“Can you tell us more about that?”

“A heart-shaped firework, huh?”

“When exactly does it go off?”

Before I knew it, Iris, Yurina, and Laneige had gathered around Berald, eyes sparkling like stars. I kept quiet as a premonition crept up.

Why do I feel that this year’s festival might not be as simple as the one from my previous life?